THE QUEEN'S THROAT: OPERA, HOMOSEXUALITY, AND THE MYSTERY OF DESIRE - Scarce Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing

Koestenbaum, Wayne

ISBN 10: 0671754572 / ISBN 13: 9780671754570

Published by New York City, NY: Poseidon Press, 1993, 1993

About this Item

1st Printing. 271 pages. Published in 1993. Landmark study on subject. One of the best books on opera ever written in our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only by a small independent press. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Wayne Koestenbaum's "The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, And The Mystery of Desire". An idiosyncratic and masterly account on opera. The book began as one brilliant essay on Mozart that the great literary critic and novelist Susan Sontag included in her selection of the Best American Essays of the Year 1992. It is surely (if somewhat uneasily for opera's heterosexual devotees) the definitive book on the connection between opera and homosexuality. Koestenbaum sees in opera's preposterous marriage of music and words not snobbish comfort, but the pathos of being its fan - indeed, of being a fan - as well as a source of proud self-affirmation. Opera is singularly appealing to homosexuals: Its transformation of tragedy and unrequited love into smoldering passion and ecstasy, the noble, not just the ephemeral, suspension of disbelief, which imagines a more beautiful world not just for gay men but for all men, which is why it would be a shame if only gay men read the book. Everyone leads a double life, the real one and the fantastic one. If gay men were made to choose just one life to live to the fullest, they would probably choose fantasy, given the long and continuing history of persecution and oppression they have endured. It should be pointed out that this is not an exercise in self-indulgence: Koestenbaum knows his beloved music supremely well, and writes about it with penetrating intelligence. His analyses of the greatest operas, from Mozart to Puccini, put to shame the dry, academic, and cold essays by musicologists. He devotes an entire chapter to Maria Callas, the greatest diva of the 20th century, and anyone who knows Callas' tragic personal life will immediately see the projection that connects her and the gay man. "A brilliant book, an ecstatic book, and inevitably, an elegiac book. And one which, like some operas, certain voices, has the capacity to provoke admiration, rapture, identification" (Susan Sontag). An absolute "must-have" title for Wayne Koestenbaum collectors. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. One of the most brilliant culture critics of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER WAYNE KOESTENBAUM TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 0671754572. Seller Inventory # 2002

Bibliographic Details

Title: THE QUEEN'S THROAT: OPERA, HOMOSEXUALITY, ...

Publisher: New York City, NY: Poseidon Press, 1993

Publication Date: 1993

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Signed: no

Edition: 1st Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

Analyzes the various and complex threads that link opera and homosexuality through gossip, personal reflection, and freewheeling speculation that plunges into the mysteries of sexuality, freedom, and obsession.

Review:

Why do so many gay men love opera? What makes an "opera queen"? What is the connection between gay sexuality and the full-throated longing that emerges from the diva's mouth? In The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire, self-proclaimed opera queen Wayne Koestenbaum investigates the hidden--and unexpected--mysteries that opera and sexuality produce. At once a personal meditation and an iconoclastic, highly entertaining survey of divas, The Queen's Throat is ultimately a profoundly moving, and at times curiously disturbing, investigation of the intricate interplay between art and sexuality, between beauty and eroticism. Koestenbaum is not afraid to challenge, and he more or less grabs readers by the hand to drag them, with nonstop exuberance, through the ornate, highly stylized world of diva worship. Traipsing through descriptions of classic performances, musical autobiographies, personal recollections, historical notations, and the music itself, Koestenbaum creates for us the daring, frenzied, disordered, highly sexual--and ultimately ecstatic--world of the opera queen. --Michael Bronski